The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-03-09
Work of the Forty-Ninth Congress.

The forty-ninth congress ended Fri
day noon, with the usual amount of
unfinished business. 1t is said that in
the amount of completed work the late
congress was considerably in advance
of its predecessors, but it also had
larger number of measures to deal with
than any preceding congress, and by
far the greater number of bills passed
were of private nature. The forty
ninth congress was in session ten
months and twenty-six days. In the
senate there were introduced 1857
bills and 11S joint resolutions, on which
1888 written reports were made, being
upward of 500 more bills and over 400
more reports than in the forty-eighth
congress. The total number of laws
enacted was approximately 1,431, of
which 1908 originated in the house
and 33S in the senate. Of these 264
became laws by the expiration of the
constitutional ten days limitation.
Fifty bills failed to become laws owing
to the adjournment of congress, nine
of them at the close of the first session.
The President vetoed 1872 senate bills
and ninety-three house, or twenty-one
more than had been vetoed from the
foundation of the government down to
the beginning of this congress. The
President also "pocketed," and so
killed, fifty bills. OF the bills which
passed the senate, 800 became laws,
including 115 of public and 205 of
strictly private nature. About $50
bills and joint resolutions originating
in the house failed of action in the
senate and $50 senate bills failed in the
house. The death-roll of this congress
bears thirteen names, an unprecedented
number. This includes Vice-president
Hendricks, president of the senate.
Three appropriation bills failed at the
last moment-the deficiency, the forti-
fication and the river and harbor.
The President refused to sign the lat
ter because he had not time to examine
it. The other bills failed in the con-
ference committees or for want of
time. The coast defence bills failed in
the house. Mrs. Logan's pension was
defeated. The bill for a secretary of ag-
riculture failed to get through, as also
the pleuro-pneumonia bill and the
bills changing the date of Inauguration
gress. The prominent measures passed
by the late congress number about
thirty, of which the greater part can
be credited to the second session.
Among the most important were the
bills regulating the presidential sue
cession; the manner of counting the
electoral vote; taxing OleOmargarine {;
increasing pensions of widows and de-
pendent relatives of deceased soldiers
for the issue of one, two and fve-dollar
silver certificates; legalizing trades
unions and corporations; the Mexican
veterans pension bill; the trade-dol-
lar redemption bill; extending the
provisions of the money-order system;
for the regulation of interstate COM
merce; prohibiting the importation of
alien contract labor; establishing ag-
ricultural experiment stations; the
anti-polygamy bill (Which became a
law without the Presidents signature) F.;
the retaliation bill; extending the free
delivery system; extending the special
delivery sytem; the Dawes Indian sew
crafty bill; providing temperance edu-
cation in schools in the District OF
Columbia and the territories; the for.
feiting of some million acres of un.
earned IMMIGRANTS, and repeating the
tenure-of-of act. About fifty impor.
tant measures failed of passage.